It's Here!

My camera is here! I'm still learning how to use it, but I'm quite proud of this macro shot I took today of one of the flowers on my deck. Oh, how I'm going to love photographing the jewelry. I didn't get the chance to try it yet because I need to move my lightbox outside, etc. But hopefully tomorrow I'll get some time.





I also got a photo of this little guy, who's hanging out on the railings of my deck. He wouldn't turn around for me, and then I kinda blew at this web to get him to move around a bit and he ran away and hid. I'm totally not a spider fan, but I am a fan of webs, so I have to make the trade. No sense in photographing them if their eight-legged little habitants can't get credit for 'em [shudders while thinking about the spider].
Another thing that I did today was clean my copper jewelry with lemon juice. It really works! Reloj and Egyptian Goddess are super shiny, waiting to be worn. I can't wait to photograph them for my Etsy shop!

Anyway, more to come in the next few days folks, I promise.

Click-click-click-click-click goes the camera,
Chelsea

New Camera!

Well, I finally did it. I finally made the leap and purchased a new digital camera for myself. I went to my favorite online retailer, Amazon.com, and completed the transaction (the camera has been sitting in my cart for over a month). It will be here on Wednesday!

If you'd see the one that I have right now, you would know that I am LOOOOOOONG overdue. My brother has even told me that he's embarassed to go anywhere with me if I take my old one. We call it "The Brick." It's a Kodak DC3400 Zoom, which my husband bought for me for my birthday in December of 1999. Now, granted it's old and it's huge and it's definitely outdated; however, it's done the job for me quite proper, so I can't complain. Aside from the size, however, the LCD screen is about shot, it's a battery hog, and soon I don't think I'll be able to purchase the type of Compact Flash cards it needs anymore. Regardless, I'm still going to hold on to it as our "beater" camera.

So, let's get back to the new purchase. Oh, the new purchase. I'm quite pleased with it: The Canon PowerShot A720IS 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. I am drooling over it for many reasons (visit Canon for the full spec). First, at one of my old jobs we worked on a marketing piece for Canon, and we had the opportunity to interview several well-known photographers (Greg Gorman and Barbara Bordnick, to name a few). I didn't do the interviews myself, but I did get to hear them and transcribe them, which eventually transformed into training materials that taught photographers how to make the transition from film to digital. Because of the testimonials these folks gave about Canons, I was sold immediately (granted, they were using the very high-end series at the time, but still...it didn't take much convincing). Second, Canon products continue to receive excellent ratings, and some of my favorite photos I see on Flickr are shot with a Canon (check out my friend's stream of GORGEOUS macro shots here).

So, I'm looking forward to doing shots of my jewelry for my shop, and testing out this little fella just to see what he can do. In the next few weeks, I anticipate posting some strange and random moments in time, courtesy of my Canon, but I doubt anyone will mind. You can probably anticipate dogs, cats, backyard bird scenes, and the wonderful, wonderful colors of fall. Have a beautiful evening folks.

Peace, love, and thousands of camera clicks,
Chelsea

p.s. Also arriving with my camera will be Mark Lareau's new book, Getting Started Making Metal Jewelry. Yeehaw I'm gonna be having some fun in the very near future!